


A night at the baths

by Corinne K (Corinne_K)



Category: Free!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Day 1 - confessions, Ghosts, Historical References, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-25
Updated: 2019-12-25
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:01:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21955573
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Corinne_K/pseuds/Corinne%20K
Summary: A supernatural encounter in a derelict old pool. Between dream and memory, Rin comes to terms with his choices, past and present.
Relationships: Matsuoka Rin/Nanase Haruka
Comments: 12
Kudos: 24
Collections: Rin & Haru Week





	A night at the baths

**Author's Note:**

> It felt safer to use the MCD warning - and do heed it if that’s a no-no for you - but rest assured that it’s nothing graphic or (imo) particularly depressing - but a reincarnation fic implies a death at some point ;)

Rin stood with his yellow helmet on, beneath precarious-looking scaffolding that supported a centenary mezzanine. It used to serve as seating for the users of the derelict Edwardian pool that, from that day onwards, he would help rebuild. 

He had half his attention on the lead architect’s briefing to the interns, and the other half on the majestic interior of the old building. At the centre, the dry pool spoke of a bygone era, the high ceiling, supported by steel arches, made the space look graceful but, somehow, still constricted compared to modern pools. The tall windows on the facade let in a gentle light.

It was perhaps fitting that he, a former competitive swimmer, should help restore a pool to its former glory, as a graduation project. Rin, however, still felt a bit sour about the fact that, if it weren’t for a stubborn injury, he might have had one more season in him. He might have made it a bit higher. But no matter now. Back to the present - and the orientation info that he almost completely missed.

It took him a few days to get used to the job and living in the northern English city. 

By mid week, though, Rin was already letting his workaholic side triumph, staying late at the site to work on his tasks. 

It was on one of those nights that he came across the most curious sight. He had gone to take measurements in a part of the building composed of walled partitions, each hosting a bathtub and a small bench. Light was scarce after he’d turned off the generator for the night, and so he was following the guidance of the white tiled walls, crossed by dark green lines, and the glow of an overhead window. That was when he heard water. It was but a slow drip, like a loose tap, but it intrigued him. He followed the sound, until he found himself inside one of the cubicles, looking at a tub full of limpid water. The space itself was cleaner than the remainder of the building - no dust or cobwebs, just a light film of steam clinging to the walls. He dipped his hand in the water. It was cool but not ice cold. It made him shiver, nevertheless. It was a strange sight, but Rin was not a superstitious person. He pulled the plug on the tub and walked away.

* * *

  
Another week went by before he stayed later at the pool again. Once more, his curiosity and funny feeling in his stomach drew him to the same part of the building and, sure enough, as he got deeper into the maze of bathing rooms, the dripping sound started echoing in the dark. 

This time though, as he reached the cubicle from last time, he saw something else inside the tub. He dared a step across the threshold, curious to look closer. It was warm and humid inside, like a bathroom where one has been running hot water. A thin ray of moonlight shot from the window and hit the water, shining on the small object - an old, cracked, rubber dolphin. 

It was not fear, but rather an unbearable sorrow, that made him bolt out the building as fast as he could.

Despite the nagging thoughts about the mysterious bathing room, ever since that first sighting, he’d never made any enquirers on the strange sightings. That night, though, he’d gone home thinking of the lonely rubber toy and what mysteries it might hide, and his mind was getting more on more invested in this story.

The thought stayed with him through the next days. It was a mix of curiosity and dread, but not in the way that people usually dread the supernatural. Rather, the thought of the lonely rubber dolphin made him feel unexplainably nostalgic.

It was perhaps that feeling that led him towards the same room, a few days later. He went there in search of some different emotion - relief, shock, fear - but as he stepped inside the compartment and laid eyes on the tub, the still water and the dolphin, all he could feel was that very same, familiar sadness. In a spur of the moment, very ill-advised decision, Rin grabbed the little toy and ran all the way home.

That night, his sleep was troubled. His dreams were made of flashbacks from his swimming days. He was in the water but couldn’t move. It weighed him down, tangled itself around his limbs, made him sink, sink…

_ The water is alive _ , he heard himself say, but the voice was not his own.

* * *

  
When he woke up, he remembered little of the dream except for those words. He had the feeling there was someone other than himself in it, but he couldn’t recall a face or name, just a vague feeling of comfort and longing all at once.

He threw the dolphin to the bottom of an empty drawer in his room and went to work.

On that day, he was scheduled to work on campus, editing plans and models. By mid morning his pupils were burnin from looking at the screen, so he went down to the coffee shop for a break.

“Hi Rin. How are you?” someone greeted from behind him, on the line. “I hear you’ve been working hard.”

It was one of his supervisors, a middle-aged woman with a sober yet cheerful demeanour.

“I try my best,” he replied.

The teacher gave him a look of genuine concern. “I also heard that you’ve been staying late...”

“I tend to get carried away when working. I’ve always been like this, especially when I was a swimmer…”

“That’s right! I remember now! When I saw your CV I thought this was the perfect project for you.”

“Teacher, that’s mean!”

They both laughed.

“Doesn’t it scare you to be there at night, though? Some of the workers outright refuse to work after sundown.”

“Really? Why?”

He didn’t want to let anything slip about his encounters, so he feigned ignorance.

“Well, you know… old building, folk tales…”

“Is there a story about the pool?”

“Not that I know of, but people just seem to have a bad feeling about it. Anyway, in my opinion it’s all cultural conditioning, so I’m glad it doesn’t affect you.”

Rin smiled. Little did she know...

* * *

  
He didn’t go onsite for another week. If there really was a ghost at the pool, would he be missing him by now? Rin laughed at the foolish thought.

Little did  _he_ know.

His work for the day was at the main pool hall. It was midday and the sun shone through the large windows. He’d been discussing something with one of the engineers - a friendly girl named Stephanie - right at the edge of the old empty pool. That’s when he had the strangest vision.

At first he might have passed it off as a trick of the light, hitting the bare tiles of the natatorium and making him see things that weren’t there. But even at second glance, that blue shimmer was unmistakable: the pool had come back to live. It was filled with clear, luscious water, beckoning him to take a dive, inviting him in. What sort of trickery it was he did not know, but it messed with his mind. It was like dream, memory and present overlapping. What wasn’t there seemed real, and if it weren’t for the quick reflexes of the friendly engineer he might have thrown himself, head first, against the bare concrete.

“Rin, are you ok? Do you need a pause?”

He found himself kneeling, inches away from the fatal step, with a hand clasped around his elbow. The blur cleared.

“I’m ok. Thanks Steph.”

Things were getting a bit dangerous, it seemed.

* * *

On that night Rin didn’t have a nightmare. He had a wonderful, vivid dream. 

In the beginning he found himself facing the main entrance of the baths.

He realized he was present in the dream, but not exactly as himself. He was wearing some kind of fancy tailored suit and his hair was short, with pomade caked up and making it cling to his head.

He paid the expensive ticket and walked through the nicer entrance. He picked a cubicle and got changed into some kind of full body knitwear...

This version of himself was a bit weird, but he knew exactly what he was doing.

When he was ready, he opened the door on the opposite side, and the pool came into view.

And what a view! Gone was the corrosion, the dust, the falling balconies and ugly scaffolding. In their place there was an elegant building brimming with light, water and life.

There was one lone swimmer cutting a path through the water. Rin was struck by his flawless form, arms propelling the lean body forward with fluid strokes.

The swimmer slowed to a halt and stood on the shallow end. 

“Let’s race.”

There was a flash of deep blue and the man disappeared under water again.

Rin followed, giddy and unable to put a finger on the feeling of familiarity that the scene brought him.

The water engulfed him in a slurry of tiny bubbles and when he re-emerged he was standing at the top of a hill, strong wind battering his body.

The swimmer was there too. There was water in his eyes.

“Don’t go!” the man cried.

Rin felt the weight of the atmosphere pinning him down, but as he examined his own body, he realized he was dressed in a soldier’s uniform, and the weight on his shoulders was that of his back pack.

“Where am I going?” He wanted to ask - but he didn’t have the chance. 

The scene ended abruptly and cut to a different setting - a tent or a field hospital of sorts. He was lying down, an insurmountable tiredness keeping him in place. Yet, he felt peaceful. The swimmer was with him, lying over him, embracing his limp body. Rin’s whole existence was enclosed on those blue eyes. There was a soft touch to his lips. He must have closed his eyes, because he didn’t see blue no more.

If that was how he died, that means the man with the bright blue eyes, who swam like a water god, was with him until his dying breath. The idea made him happy, but also a bit regretful. Why had he left him? Why did he go to war? Had he lived here in a past life? How did they meet again, at the very end? It was all so intriguing. Rin couldn’t go back to sleep.

He opened the drawer and palmed for the dolphin toy. It was there no more.

He tossed and turned until morning, trying to remember something, anything, but his mind was blank. If he really lived a life like the one in the dream, then his memories must have been completely erased.

On the next day, he purposely procrastinated, so that he could stay back at the baths one more time. When the last of the workers left and switched off the lights, he threaded through the labyrinthic aisles, lit only by moonlight and the flashlight from his phone. 

As he approached the same cubicle from before, there was the sound of dripping water, guiding him back to their meeting point.

He ran, taking reckless turns in the dark, and finally stopping on the threshold of the haunted compartment.

As in the previous times, a single moon beam shone on the still water. The rubber dolphin bobbed idly on the surface.

“You came.”

Rin almost jumped out of his skin.

“Ahh!”

“Sorry.”

The ghost had a pleasant deep voice, but his tone was flat, all words delivered without inflection.

Rin searched for the source of the sound, but for a moment it seemed to hang in the air without an anchor. Then, without prior warning, the moonlight shone brighter on a particular spot in the hall, and in that clarity a figure began to form itself. It was but a translucent specter at first, but as Rin kept focusing his vision on it and, to a certain extent,  wishing for it to show itself, the contours hardened, the forms solidified. Standing before him was a human just like himself. 

As expected, it was none other than the man he’d dreamt of, his mystical blue eyes unmistakable, even in the dim light. He had straight dark hair, with bangs falling over his eyes. He was dressed in oversized woolen pants, and a baggy blue jacket with only one button, fastened asymmetrically near the collar. It was the outfit of a poor man.

“Who are you?”

The man looked taken aback by the question. 

“My name is Harry”, he answered.

Rin didn’t want to sound harsh, but he really didn’t know how to phrase it in any other way.

“Why are you haunting me?”

That seemed to irk the ghost.

“I’m not haunting you!”

“Oh? What are you doing then?”

“I’m trying to tell you something, but you keep running away!”

A ghost in denial. Just what Rin needed in his life.

“Well, say it now!”

“I can’t,” Harry answered, sounding grumpy, and looked away.

At that moment, Rin has the impression that the ghost was behaving differently from what he’d seen in his dreams. He was colder, more distant...

Of course! How stupid.

“Harry, who am I to you?”

Harry entered the small bathing room in silence and only spoke when he was sitting on the wooden bench by the wall.

“The current you is nothing to me.”

“Then why did you seek me?”

“I didn’t seek you. You did, Ryan.”

Rin took a moment to process those words.

“Ryan...”

“What do you go by now?”

“Rin...Rin Matsuoka.”

“Matsuoka. That sounds...”

“Japanese. I’m Japanese in this life.”

“You look the same”, Harry shrugged. It made Rin giggle.

“Were we friends?”

Once again Harry turned his face away.

“Harry?”

Only then did the ghost nod.

They stayed in each other’s company through the night. Rin learned about Harryand Ryan and their unlikely friendship. Ryan was the son of a rich merchant, while Harry was a street rat. They met when Harry broke into this pool because the sea was too cold even for him at that time of the year. Ryan had been eyeing the newcomer and, rather than being put off by the rags Harry wore for a swimsuit, he’d been captivated by his swimming style and immediately asked for a race. At the end of the day, instead of reporting the intruder, he’d helped him escape. They were 17. They remained close for years to come, until war broke out in the continent and Ryan decided to enlist.

“...And so you left for the western front and I stayed here, waiting for the war to end and for your return. But the war never ended, and even your letters stopped coming, so I joined the army too. It was the only chance I had to find you, to tell you-“

Harry stopped himself.

“What? What did you want to tell Ryan back then? You can tell me now.”

Harry didn’t reply. They had been walking around the building and found themselves currently sitting on the bottom of the empty pool. Harry looked up to the tall windows, to the growing light of dawn. Soon the day would be upon them.

“I dreamt of you - of us - last night,” Rin said. “Harry, were you with me when I died?”

The ghost let out a slow breath. “I was. It took me years, but I finally found you. I was too late.”

“I see...”

“I think that’s why I came back here. Because I couldn’t say it in the end.”

“Harry, I want you to know that in the dream, at that moment, I felt at peace, and I was so happy that you were there. I couldn’t have asked for anything more. Maybe that’s why I...I passed on...and you didn’t. I’m so sorry...to have left you behind.”

He looked down at his lap, at the space between them, and realized with a touch of panic, that he was holding both of Harry’s hands. He hadn’t mentioned the kiss in the dream, on his dying bed. Was that what Harry had wanted to tell him all these years?

“Ryan...Rin.”

“Harry, I think I - Ryan - he knew. He didn’t think he had to wait for you, because he knew of your love. Harry, I think he loved you back.”

He looked up. Harry’s eyes were now fixed on his and a sole tear ran down his pale cheek. He nodded and pulled his hands from Rin’s grasp. He then brought them to Rin’s face, rubbed his cheeks and played with wisps of red hair. Harry’s lips curled up in a small smile. His eyes were impossibly clear, almost translucent.

_Oh_ .

Under the bright morning light, Harry was finally disappearing.

* * *

  
Rin carried on with his graduation project. When his term came to an end, there was still much work to be done to restore the old building to its former glory, but that would be the task for yet another batch of interns, and the team of architects, engineers and workers. On his part, Rin would go back to Japan, start a new career, and make the best of the rest of his life.

He never saw Harry again but he thought about him often - the man that he’d loved in his past life.

There was a war memorial in town, made of two obelisks, a memorial stone and a cenotaph - or empty tomb. A day or two before his departure, Rin bought a bunch of red poppies and went there. It was in the middle of a public square, facing a church, and he wondered if locals would look at him weirdly. He took a perfunctory tour around the monument, read the plaques and took some photos. As no one was paying him any mind he went on with his plan. He knelt by the empty tomb and laid down the poppies. Then he joined his hands and closed his eyes. His first prayer was for all the soldiers in all the wars. That they could find their peace. The second was for peace itself. The third was for Harry - for a lucky reincarnation and a happy next life. The final one was for himself. He thought about his current life and the tale of Harry and Ryan. If only he had someone so dear that he could cherish, and make amends for his past failures. 

Would he meet Harry again? Would he let him down anew? 

In the quiet of the misty morning, Rin prayed for another chance.

**Author's Note:**

> I’m sorry this is so clumsy! It was last minute inspiration. I’ll give it a clean up later (maybe!) but for now here is my day 1 contribution. Hope you like it!


End file.
